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Making Seattle a destination for new work is not just about supporting the ecosystem of our local community but working to build a bridge from Seattle to the national conversation and back. This year, we took two big trips to take the first steps towards building that bridge.​The Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville In April, Umbrella Project went down to Louisville to attend one of the largest, longest running, and arguably most influential new play festivals in America. Executive Director, Norah Elges and Managing Director, Erin Bednarz flew in from Seattle to take in 7 new plays in 3 days; our favorite kind of marathon.

It was important for Umbrella Project to attend Humana this year. Not just because we love playwrights, new plays, and seeing our friends and colleagues from all over the country, but because a large piece of what we we’re building to support our mission of moving new plays forward, is a stronger connection from Seattle to the national conversation. Very few other artists from Seattle were at Humana this year- the exceptions being Kristin Leahey (Seattle Repertory Theatre, literary director) and Caitlin Sullivan (the Satori Group, artistic director). By attending Humana, we’re able to bring the experience of these plays back to not one single theatre company, but to the 20+ companies that make up our Local Network.Between World-Premiere performances, happy hours, press junkets, and catching up with friends new and old, we felt honored to be representing Seattle amongst the National theatre congregation — here are just a few of the inspiring words said about our city & the future of Humana:

“Giving people context for their experience is a huge, huge part of it. We focus on making theater feel like it’s a space for everyone, that’s something we talk a lot about -- making sure we’re programming a diverse range of stories and voices so that not everything is heterosexual and white and male.” — Hannah Rae Montgomery, Resident Dramaturg at Actors Theatre

“My hope for Humana is that other people take it over. I’m just a guardian for it as it moves into the future; I want to see what the art form becomes and how it changes.” — Les Waters, Artistic Director at Actors Theatre

“I would take the Seattle talent, acting community, and designers, over any community in the United States; how do we inspire people to make the necessary plays for them?”— Steven Dietz, Humana Festival playwright​“Seattle is one of those places you only really hear good things about, in terms of art and as a city to live in. It feels like one of those places that the rest of the country views as sort of civilized and having it together, It seems like a place where you would have a pretty intelligent and engaged audience.”— Brendan Pelsue, Humana Festival Playwright

Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) hosts its annual conference in a different city each year. This year, we lucked out that the conference was held in July just a short drive away in Portland, OR. The conference brings together dramaturgs and literary managers from all over the country + Canada for four days of panels, hot topics, discussions, coffee breaks, happy hours, and important time and space to catch up with old colleagues and make new connections. Umbrella Project would not exist without LMDA as this idea grew out discussions at the 2014 conference in Boston. Being there not only as attendees but as panel hosts and speakers, happy hour conveners, and even getting a shout out from Mark Bly himself, was exhilarating.

We are ever grateful to the support of LMDA, our mentors and colleagues, and the generosity of dramaturgs everywhere. To learn more about the conference, check out #LMDA16 on Twitter. You can also watch some of the panels on HowlRound.com. Keeping it on the west coast for one more year, #LMDA17 will be in Berkeley, CA.​We look forward to sharing the full interviews from Humana with you over the coming weeks. We are still growing and learning. We still have lots to do. And we still need your help. Your donation today means we can start planning our travel to Humana, LMDA, and more for 2017. It’s tax deductible.

Jenny Rachel Weiner is the 2016 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at the Roundabout Theatrein NYC where her play Kingdom Come will receive its world premiere this fall. Her play, Horse Girls, received it’s west coast premiere at Seattle’s Annex Theatre in 2014.

Jill Rafson is the Director of New Work at Roundabout Theatre Company and has been a major champion of new plays; especially Jenny’s. Jenny and Jill first met by introduction from Josh Harmon (Bad Jews), and after attending Jenny’s thesis production of Nina at Fordham University (MFA 2014), Jill got to read an early draft of Kingdom Come...the rest just fell together.​We got together for a hotel room chat to rehash their meet-cute, the importance of institutions supporting emerging playwrights, and that a good theatre buddy + bourbon is the best way to survive Humana.

NE: It’s so wonderful that you identified this opportunity for emerging playwrights. I know so often that less really happens --or agents won’t sign you -- until you’ve had that first production. How do you find the scripts for playwrights who don’t have agents?

JR: Some of them are how Jenny came to me -- through an artist recommendation. We also support emerging directors so we’re constantly talking to directors and we ask them what playwrights they are interested in. I also make an effort to try to cover as many of the MFA programs as possible. I’m looking for good plays so if you can get me a good play, I don’t care how I got it.

NE: Can you share a bit about Kingdom Come and what it was about the play that made it that needle in the haystack? What is the play about?

JW: The play is about two women who catfish each other on the internet and fall in love. It’s my musing on modern day loneliness and the way we hide and project the people we want to be. How that intersects with our dreams and insecurities; what’s real connection and what’s masked connection.

JR: For me, I tend to get plays in phases. I’d been getting a lot of scripts touching on this internet thing and if are we more connected or less connected. Often, when I’m reading a lot on the same theme, I’ll finally read one that cracks it in a new way like, “Oh! somebody here has actually figured out how to get to the actual human piece of this.” And it was funny. There’s a lot of serious or self-serious work out there and I really strive to find things that actually have some comedy in them and are willing to let the humor come out. One thing I’ve always loved about Jenny is that she’s a woman who is hilarious. Hilarious women really are unicorns. I’m often asked, “What is the aesthetic of Roundabout Underground?” We air on the side of sincerity. Heart on the sleeve, narrative driven work. That’s just what we tend to like, and that’s what Jenny’s work is.

JW: I’m figuring out how to write through my perspective. Which is dark, funny, and with heart. It’s an interesting intersection. I’m a person who has real sincerity and real emotional depth in my own self, and also total sarcasm and jaded sense of the world. So it’s this funny, weird thing that I’m writing about which is people who really give a shit and are trying really hard to not give a shit. And that’s where the humor comes from. We’re all trying our best and we care about the way our lives unfold. And I think I’ve found my home with Roundabout because of how my voice has developed.

A sincere way of life with a dark comedy on top of it in a clear narrative way. It’s not often theaters are truly looking for comedy. It’s rare actually that theaters are programing comedy.

Heavy drama is like looking at the sun. I want to deal with the same emotions and themes as a serious drama. I’m masking it as something else. You can’t look at the sun.

JR: And my metaphor is ‘Eat your Vegetables’ theatre. You know when you’re watching a play that you should be watching but you don’t want to be watching it. Jenny hides the veggies in the mac’n’cheese.

JW: It’s so true! Life is so hard already. I need to feel comfortable to settle into the seat. I want to care about the people I’m seeing and I want to identify with them. And the way to identify with them is to see myself in them and the way to do that is with humor. It’s a reflection and a mirror. It’s us laughing at humanity and how hard it is to be a human.

JR: You may not be a 600lb woman, but everyone has felt insecure. That is the thing that you find universally throughout the characters in Kingdom Come. That’s what makes them so appealing. That may as well be because we’re all feeling the same thing on the inside.

JW: Even if you’re not online dating, it’s like the way we project our personas on Facebook. We might not say we’re a different person, but we are projecting what we want people to see every moment. It’s how I want you to see my life. It’s a cultivated and curated image.

Jenny Weiner: Jill, you were actually the first person to read the very early second draft of Kingdom Come and you actually didn’t even tell me it was for the reading series--I thought you were just reading my plays to keep our relationship going and I still hadn’t put two and two together. I just assumed that it didn’t apply to me, which is also why this all feels like I won the lottery.

Jill Rafson: I called Jenny and for the second time, tricked her into getting on the phone, not knowing what we were talking about, and told her that we’d selected Kingdom Come for the Underground Reading series; it was literally the needle in the haystack I’d been desperately wanting. And then one week after the series, we called Jenny to tell her that we’d be producing it this season. I wish I did that everyday -- it’s the best part of my job.

Norah Elges: Is the purpose of the Underground Reading Series at Roundabout to find a play for the mainstage?

JR: Yes and no. It has a couple of purposes. We’ve mostly done one production per season, and there was one season where we’d gotten a grant and were able to do a full two show season. The next year, we were thinking that it was going to be really sad when we get to the spring and there’s nothing going on in the Underground. So I added the reading series as a way to keep the space alive and the program at the forefront of people’s minds. The first year we did it, Bad Jews was in it and we decided to produce it immediately after. We discovered after that it was a great programing tool, and it was also the first time we got any awards attention. I wanted to try to achieve that without having the extra money, so that’s how the series started. We’ll be reexamining it again as we’re switching to a full two show season moving forward.

Erin Bednarz: Are the producing rules similar to Humana?

JR: Yes, it’s exactly the same. You can not have had a professional New York debut production yet. That’s another part of the series. I really try to at least find one or two writers for the series who aren’t represented and try to use that as an opportunity to help them get agents.

JW: Which is absolutely what happened for me. I signed with my agent a week after Jill called to tell me that Roundabout was putting Kingdom Come into the series. Initially, I didn’t think we’d get the Tow Foundation grant because Roundabout had received it the previous year. I felt so lucky that they believed in me (and the play) enough to put together this full application. I have so much gratitude and love for everyone at Roundabout; to feel so received by this company, and so lucky to be a part of it right now.

JR: The Tow Foundation came up with this grant to give emerging playwrights the ability to just be playwrights in the year that they are having their debut. You’re salaried through the theatre you are in residence with and each company breaks it down differently. Jenny has a salary, health insurance, can pay her rent and buy tickets & materials, do research and have a travel budget. That’s the premise of it; to live the life of an artist and to not have a day job while you’re trying to get a production on it’s feet. So you can go to every single preview and this can just be your job for the year. I love calling people to offer them their production. But my favorite call to get, is when playwrights call to tell me that they’ve quit their day job. And this grant just excellerates that whole process.

NE: It sounds like there is a real investment from Roundabout Underground in the longevity; not just of the play but also of the playwright?

JR: Part of the program is that you are automatically going to get commissioned by us for another play. We realized that part of this is telling a young playwright that they have a home under the arms of this big theatre. The whole point of the Underground’s creation was to have a safe space, and part of this safety is saying we don’t care how this sells, we don’t care what the critics say about it, we’re invested in you. Part of my job is to look for the voice of a playwright that we’ll want to work with in the long run; that’s where the commission came into it. And the hope is that we’ll produce the commission upstairs and say they’ve ‘graduated’. The track record has been really good so far and that’s the ideal; Josh Harmon, Steven Karam, Megan Kennedy, etc.

Roundabout was founded to do revivals. So what is the role that this theatre can play in new work? It should be going back to the original mission. It’s about refreshing the canon. Especially now when plays get revived so quickly. We’re getting plays from the ‘90s and the early ‘00s so we’re trying to keep an eye on what are the voices that will stick around in the long run. It’s self interest honestly, because I don’t want to do the same Arthur Miller play forever and he was — at one point — a contemporary playwright.

EB:And how great is it to see that reflected? To see Tow Foundation supporting and validating that?

JW: Their commitment to the playwright is evidenced in the carrier of these playwrights. Steven Karam was the first playwright in the Underground and has his first commission as a Pulitzer finalist and has two shows on Broadway this season, one that was a commission.

JR: We don’t frequently do new plays on Broadway. My new challenge is, How do I get them to stay in our family as they keep growing? Since Steven had already adapted the The Seagullfor film, we are commissioning them to do adaptations of classics.

JW: Roundabout is making an investment in a young playwright, and the capacity to grow with the company is astronomical. They are the biggest company in New York and the support is immense and they aren’t just saying, “yeah we’re doing your play, goodbye.” Everyone at the company has said, “This is your artistic home.”

JR: Yes and that would have been true with or without the grant from the Tow Foundation. They are putting money behind the principles we’ve set.

JW: Every department at that theatre cares about the work. It is a huge company and I met with every department over 3 or 4 weeks. Not only did every single person know my play -- from interns to the Artistic Director and Executive Director saying, “We’re so lucky to have you here.” I’m like, “What are you talking about?! You are ridiculous. Thank YOU for having me.”

NE: Something Umbrella Project has been asking at Humana is about the track record. Part of our mission with UP is helping playwrights between these gaps -- staged reading to first production and first production to any next production. How has Roundabout really been able to set their Underground plays up for success?

JR: Visibility. We know we’re gonna get a NY Times review. I’ve also added that we publish the script so that it’s available for sale once performances begin. It’s on sale, in the lobby. Playwrights Horizon has started to do it. McCarter is doing it. That’s something I really like doing on a smaller scale. The press presence is certainly the big thing. Bad Jews and Speech and Debate are the poster children for this. Tigers Be Still gets done a lot.

NE: And all through have been produced in Seattle! Last question: Jenny, this is your first time at Humana and Jill’s third time. What have been your Humana survival tools?

JR: A good theatre going buddy to keep you honest. It’s delightful to have a buddy!

JW: Scheduled bathroom breaks and bourbon. They sort of go hand in hand.

Jenny Weiner’s play Kingdom Come premieres at Roundabout Underground. In September 2016, Jenny will begin enrollment at Juilliard as part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program.

As new play dramaturgs, playwrights are the center of our world. We founded Umbrella Project in order to be better advocates for playwrights in rehearsal rooms and in our artistic communities. We're working to build clearer pathways to other theatre communities for the great new plays that are developed in Seattle. We’ve had the good fortune of working with some incredible local and nationally recognized writers over this last year including; Emily Conbere, Benjamin Benne, Brendan Healy, Susan Stanton, and Arlitia Jones. When we bring a playwright under our umbrella, we are committing to support their play from an early stage to first production and beyond.

Since we are not a theatre company or a producing house, we are able to meet the playwright on their timeline, removing roadblocks and barriers as they arise, matchmaking new resources, and designing a custom path by which to move the play forward.

Like with many other new play development hubs, this starts with a workshop. As dramaturgically minded producers, we work with the playwright to bring together a room of people to take the play on the page to it’s next level. With no public showing following the workshop, unless requested by the playwright, they have the freedom to explore boldly.

We’ve just completed our second workshop of this year, Brendan Healy’s play TASTE, originally written while a part of the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Writers Group, which includes a live cooking competition. Having received a few staged readings (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Northwest Playwrights Alliance, and New Century Theatre Company), it was key for Brendan to explore elements that traditional readings don’t allow for; in this case, actors making hot dishes on stage.

How does an Umbrella Project move forward after a workshop? Though each process is unique, here is our model for the new few steps:

First Look. Once the playwright and dramaturg feel the play is ready , we invite members of our network and potential producers or co-producers, to hear a reading of the play. Benjaminin Benne’s at the very bottom of a body of water, which received its First Look in July, is seeking its first production. Want to learn more? Email Erin for the inside scoop.Premiere. Moving Emily Conbere’s Knocking Bird forward from it’s 2 year staged reading limbo, was a large part of what inspired Umbrella Project. After receiving it’s co-production at West of Lenin last fall, Knocking Bird is seeking its next production. Email Norah for the inside scoop.Bridging Seattle to the National Conversation. For many new plays, the first production is also the last. “World Premiere” sounds so flashy and wonderful, but often it’s tough to find a second home for new work, even if it’s in a new community where it’s never been seen before. Umbrella Project works with our partners across the country to try to find a second stop for locally-grown scripts out into the great wide world. Advocating for opportunities for co-productions, rolling premieres with continued development, and trades.Making Seattle a destination for new work is about sending plays out and bringing plays in. Partnerships with similarly minded organizations, likeOne Coast Collaboration (OCC), give us the opportunity to work with national playwrights and develop work in our community. In August, we partnered with OCC to bring Susan Stanton back to Seattle to workshop her play, Furball. Susan’s play The Things Are Against Us, premiered at Washington Ensemble Theatre earlier this year.​Our next workshop is at the end of this month. We’ll be heading down to Olympia for a weekend in the woods as we run our way through Arlitia Jones's play Come to Me, Leopards.

Making Seattle a destination for new work starts in Seattle. As Umbrella Project grows our national network and works to build a stronger bridge from Seattle to the national conversation, our first commitment is still to the vibrant, messy, ambitious, and bold community of our rainy city.

We began building our local network by seeking out theatre companies that champion new plays. While there are hundreds of productions of new plays per year in Puget Sound, only a few of those plays are seen by the general population (non-industry) and even fewer that are developed and premiered here go on to have second productions or any sort of life outside Seattle. Umbrella Project works with the companies in our network to help fill in the gaps between idea and staged reading, reading and workshop, workshop and premiere and beyond.

One year later, over 20 organizations that have stood up and made a commitment to new work including; 14/48 Projects, ACT- A Contemporary Theatre, Annex Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Forward Flux, Live Girls! Theater, Mirror Stage, Northwest Playwrights Alliance, Parley Productions, Pratidhwani, Rain City Projects, RED STAGE, Seattle Public Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, STAGEright Theatre, Strawberry Theatre Workshop, The Horse in Motion, The Pocket/The Slate, and The Satori Group.

The Forecast, our monthly-ish newsletter, and our New Play Calendar, highlight the new play related events happening across the 19+ local theatre companies that are part of our network. We also had a few people join us for a very small test of an early version of the New Play Pass—our first sketch at building a sustainable revenue stream and a channel to reach new audiences.

We are continuing to host the Seattle chapter of Dramaturgy Open Office Hours every month at locations around the city. The Dramaturgy Open Office Hours Project launched in the spring of 2014 in New York City with the intent to increase accessibility to dramaturgs, and to create a place where people could meet to discuss dramaturgy in a relaxed, informal way. With UP as a co-sponsor of DOOH, we continue to provide basic support to other freelance artists, to build networks of collaborators, and to increase awareness not only to the role of dramaturgs in the creative process, but also to the many dramaturgs living and working in their vicinity with whom they might choose to collaborate. We just had one last night, and it was great.

Script Consultancy is a program which offers our dramaturgical services to the larger community at a sliding scale. Playwrights will be paired with an Umbrella Project dramaturg for one-on-one sessions to discuss their script. Our dramaturgs aid playwrights in structure, character development, world-building, amongst many other aspects of accelerating a new play. All plays that come to Umbrella Project via Script Consultancy may be considered for future co-productions with the playwright's consent.

It's been a big year and we're already looking ahead to more! These are just some of the programs and projects we're continuously working on.

Knocking Bird trailer, produced in partnership with Mighty Tripod Productions.

​​This time last years, we jumped in with both feet. At the same time that we were running our Kickstarter campaign, we were already putting our plan into action with the world premiere of Emily Conbere’s play Knocking Bird. Conbere’s play, and it’s long and circuitous journey to production, was one of the reasons we wanted to start Umbrella Project in the first place, so it made sense that it was our first co-production. We are not a traditional theatre company but we are both a development pipeline filling in the gaps between readings and workshops, first productions and second productions, as well as a new play matchmaker. In this case, it was Splinter Group and West of Lenin that came to the table with us to bring this play to life—over two years after its latest staged reading.

Paul Budraitis, who had continued to champion the play followed it’s reading with NPA, and Norah Elges, Umbrella Project’s co-founder and Executive Director, had been committed to see the play through to production.

Comments from 2015/16 Gregory Award Nominators.
While New Play is not one of the People’s Choice categories for the Gregory Awards, which honors excellence in the Puget Sound area, Knocking Bird is eligible for Outstanding Actor, Actress, Director, and Production.

We were fortunate to have an incredible team bringing this work to its next life stage. Under Paul’s direction, actors Angela DiMarco, Samuel Hagen, and Alex Matthews, gave life to these characters. Our unstoppable design and production team—Ahren Buhmann, Robert Henson, Leo Mayberry, Ashley Rolph, Hannah Schnabel, Tom Wiseley, and Norah Elges—worked tirelessly to build the world of the play inside of West of Lenin.